ATPA Lesson 2: Mines

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply.

Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊

- StickyGum32

2 – Mines

Mines are much like the pearl comets we just made, the only thing that's different is that a mine sends a bunch of comets into the air at the same time. Since we didn't set up the previous lesson to accommodate for this effect (purposely) we'll need to remake the effect from scratch. This should test your ability to recreate the glow from the pearl comet on this effect. (I hope you saved your formula!)

1. Start a new effect, set the control to around 3.00 seconds and add an emitter to the control. We used to consider this emitter the 'launch emitter' but now we're going call it a battery emitter. Ignore what this means for now, it will become more important in Lesson 5.
2. Add a particle to the Emitter Rate panel - set the speed to .01 in the Emitter Speed panel.

Why? For some reason (that no one has been able to logically decipher) for all particles to shoot upward in a simultaneous movement, the emitter(s) before the launch has to have a minimum speed of .01 to direct the particle in an upward direction. If you do not do this, half of the particles will shoot upward and half will shoot in random directions.

Set the lifetime to .05 and make the particle invisible by reducing the particle size to 0.00 for Start and End time.
3. Add a new emitter after the barrage emitter - this will now be our launch emitter. Add about 20 particles to it and increase the lifetime between 2.00 and 3.00 seconds. Apply the same physics you created for the pearl comet - my cocktail is 1.40/.40 (drag/grav). Now open the Emitter Speed panel and play with speed, sphere and circle until you achieve a nice upward burst.

If this looks similar to what you have, then you're on the right track - as long as the particles are moving in an upward grouping all at once, you're good. Apply some randomness to the lifetime of the launch emitter - I use around 15%.

4. Now apply your ProColor formula starting with the launch emitter. What was once the launch emitter is now the Outer Glow of your ProColor formula:

Control > Battery > Outer Glow (formally launch) > Inner Glow > Core

5. Save your effect (don't forget .frw!) and post a video with multiple mines (all different colors) for submission.

And that's a very basic mine! If you have any questions or if anything in this tutorial is unclear, feel free to ask your questions here.

Next Lesson: Lesson 3A - Die-Off Emitter

Edited April 22Apr 22 by StickyGum32